EL SALVADOR Dream
It’s really hard to get a handle on what’s going on in El Salvador, ‘The Saviour’ … known as the Land of Volcanoes (170 with 23 active).
It feels like it’s moving. And I am not talking about the two tectonic plates it sits on, dramatically known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire". A place prone to eruptions and earthquakes. And not just a little, there are a lot of moving parts accelerating right now.
For such a teeny weeny country – the smallest in Central America (21,041 square kilometers) but with 7million people, also the most densely populated in the Americas - there’s a lot going on.
Conquered by the Spanish, in the 1500s, it became a producer of coffee and sugar which created a small elite in currently the 5th poorest country in North America; 38% live in the rural areas, 40% fall below the poverty line, 50% don’t have internet and 70% are unbanked. Its main exports with coffee and sugar are textiles, chemicals ,rubber and plastics and metallic products with 45% going to the US. ‘Over 2.5 million Salvadorans live abroad - mostly in the United States - and in 2020 they sent back almost $6 billion, equivalent to 23% of the country's gross domestic product’ - that’s a lot of transaction costs which could be saved.
The capital city of El Salvador is San Salvador founded in 1524 by Pedro de Alvarado. Alvarado was a Spanish conquistador sent by Hernán Cortés from Mexico. It is the oldest and most long-standing capital in Central America and El Salvador remained a Spanish colony for about 300 years.
As recent as 2015, it was known the homicide capital of the world with 105 homicides per 100,000 and it’s still reeling from civil war, guerrilla activities and military backed political parties and governments. During 1979-1981 around 30000 people were killed by army backed right wing death squads.
In 2019, there was a regime change with the new youthful, charming, great on Twitter populist El Presidente disrupter and part-time autocrat, Nayib Bukele. There is certainly a sense of hope amongst everyday people. Food and computers were distributed during COVID and deals were negotiated with the gangs halving the homicides.
However very recently in March and April 2022, the gang violence started to spike which led Bukele to take a hard line. With the help of his army, he has arrested 10000 gang members but he also brought a state of emergency measures which have violated human rights and had much criticism from advocacy organisations and journalists, who have been allegedly put under surveillance.
A sort of perfect storm for a new world order.
Indeed, El Salvador has become the first Bitcoin country with Bukele decreeing it as legal tender, issuing $30 via Government administered wallets in September 2021 to all citizens. This has led to 3million people using it. That’s nearly half the population ! Not without its opponents, both the World Bank and the IMF have voiced their concerns.
Alongside, El Salvador is promoting one of it’s real USPs, and it’s being rebranded as a Surf haven - I mean it has always been such but more so now, with ‘Surfcity’ attracting - ‘We are here because the water is too cold in California right now’ rich crypto Californians (we met many). In fact, as a testament, I didn’t mind getting mostly slapped in the face by the waves and the surf board pretty much temporarily breaking my nose when we had surf lessons there because the water was an unbelievable 28*C.
Surfing Bitcoin Missionaries in countries determined to break from its shackles and move to economic salvation … evangelical holidays.
This is certainly a well travelled path El Salvador is accustomed to in welcoming new ideologies.